Chalk the Walk

 May is recognized as Mental Health Month.  As a Community Health Nurse I can assure you that mental health is something that is a primary part of my work with families.  As a human being living in 2022 I can also testify that mental health is a solid challenge simply because it is.....it just is.  It is hard to balance health vs. disease, wellness vs. illness, whether that is in the body, the mind or the spiritual part of ourselves.  In nursing we look at the whole self and we strive to make each part equally important.  In community health we add the aspect of the world we live in......and that makes things even bigger and broader, brighter and more shadowy.....

Our local Health Coalition created something called Chalk the Walk as a tangible way to do something for Mental Health awareness.  In a world that often feels helpless and hopeless to change the big and heavy problems of mental illness, there can still be opportunities to do something creative.  We can shine a bright light, we can lift spirits and bring hope and joy.....which is a huge part of being mentally healthy and well.  We are invited to grab sidewalk chalk and get outside and decorate our sidewalks with bright colors and happy messages.  Write positive things!  Share words and pictures and ideas that are good and hopeful and encouraging on your driveways, your sidewalks, your parks and your streets.  Go to nursing homes, to hospitals and daycares, to schools....then take pictures of them and share them on your social media platforms, with pictures of your children and your pets in them, wherever you can to bring joy and light and goodness to others.  It doesn't have to take much more than a few minutes and a few dollars.....but the combined influence could be huge for someone who is struggling to find a reason to smile.  

My next-door neighbors are sidewalk chalk fanatics.  In fact, the dad of the girl-tribe told me once that the leader of the chalk fun is always mama.....she loves it even more than her 3 girls do....and from the time the snow melts in early spring until the last possible fall day she and her sweet girls will be out there on the driveway and more days then not there will be chalk art on the driveway.  Sometimes my kids have wandered over to participate.....she knows something, as do her kiddos.....about the simple joy and deep goodness that are possible when pretty lavender chalk scrapes against plain cement in a curvy line....and then yellow joins the party, and then maybe orange glides in.....and along comes green....and then, oh wait, the neighbor showed up and started drawing hop scotch!  so lets go do that quick!  and now sister started drawing....an ice cream cone!  Oh yum!  what could be next?   maybe....a donut?  oh, wow!.....and on and on it goes until all the chalk is gone....or until the sun goes down....or maybe until it rains.  But tomorrow is another day and maybe there will be time for another Chalk the Walk....because it is good for us to think that there could be time to do it again.